A Venice vacation, Italy

We got up at 4:30am after just about 4 hours of sleep. Not really enough to go on a long trip, but who cares, 2 drivers can easily take turns so it's not much of a torture. Once we got up, I quickly searched for a decent deal on some Venice hotel for about half the normal price due to some last minute offer. We left Ravensburg looking for a nice little warm escape and after we got into a snow storm in Austria we were even more excited to head south. I had never seen snow this late in the year in Austria.

The guy at the gasoline station strongly recommended taking the tunnel instead of the mountain roads to cross the Alps and so we did. It's always amazing to take the tunnel. It's one of the longest tunnels in Europe and the weather changes quite a bit when you reach the other side.

After we had reached Italy, the weather changed, still clouds on the sky but nice and warm after just about 3 hours of driving. The road is winding down passing Bolzano and other Northern Italian cities.

The mountains are completely different here, not so much together with small steep canyons but wide valleys with spectacular cliffs on both sides. Around 1pm we finally reached Venice. We immediately found our hotel which was on the landside of Venice; the new city. We went up to our room to have a brief break from the long drive, took a shower and then finally headed towards old town.

Venice is amazing, I had never been in Venice before. I have seen most Northern Italian cities and many all the way down to Naples and Paestum, but never the Perl of the Adriatic Sea. I never felt that I had missed anything, but boy was I amazed to see all that beauty. Everywhere you look is worth another picture, every corner with the cute little windows, the balconies with their luscious green from the herbs and flowers reaching out through the brass railings. Combine that beauty with the tiny streets and most importantly the hundreds of canals that spread through the city and you feel a step closer to that fairy tale medieval city we all dreamt of when we were kids.

Walking through Venice is like a never ending labyrinth; your mind can barely grasp the amount of detail. Every little brick had been worked on over the centuries and you can really see the result. After walking through the city and having crossed the Canale Grande with one of the many Gondolas, we finally found our way to the San Marco Square with the great market hall and the big old seal of Venice, a Lion with wings on blue bricks.

Most Americans are familiar with this site as I have been, but not because of the pictures that cover the travel guides or their personal travel experiences in Italy, but really because of the famous hotel in Las Vegas which has been built in a way to reflect the most important attractions in Venice.

Quite amazing that because I have been there many times, this was the number one spot I wanted to see. Not sure if that's sad or whether that should be regarded as a good thing. After looking through the streets and naturally the shops some more, we started to work our way back to the bus station, where as always we got 10 different answers from 10 different people. This is nothing unusual in Italy.

After we got back to the hotel, we stopped again at the hotel and then went for dinner shortly after. We had a nice appetizer, preserved artichoke hearts and some Spaghetti, steak, and what I always get Bresaola Pizza with Rucola on top. After our beautiful and eventful day we deserved to rest a bit before we would continue our trip the next morning.

Recommended Venice Guide

A paradise of gondolas, glittering canals, museums and churches -- what more could a tourist ask for? The floating city is certainly a unique holiday experience that treats you to special marvels that will leave you wanting more and more. Although the tourists in Venice outnumber the residents, it still retains its atmospheric charm, with much of its architectural delights having remained unchanged over the last six centuries. Summers are not the best time to visit, as Venice can get hot and smelly. In winters, there is often flooding in the canals as the water levels rise unexpectedly for a couple of hours, but it’s all part of the... Read more »

reviews

Recent reviews for Venice

Rent a boat for the channels in Venice - Apr 30, 2009, by WazlingA nice city, showing you a huge block of history in the city center, like the palace of the Doge, the former ruler of Venice. Also the markus place offers a nice view. The nice and small walkways are also nice to look at. You can go for... Read more »

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